Weekly Recap: Mar 23rd - 30th
A recap of the big political stories affecting the United States this past week.
Donald Trump’s fraud penalty was due this week, but He received an adjustment at the last moment. An appeals court agreed to reduce Trump’s bond penalty from $454 million to $175 million, and he was given another 10 days to pay. As before, if Trump does not pay this penalty in time, the state can begin seizing his assets to collect the value due.
The appeals court also blocked the ruling that prevented Donald Trump and his sons from serving in the corporate leadership of the family's companies. They are currently serving as executive vice presidents.
Trump launched his latest venture to make money, selling $60 leather-bound “God Bless the USA” bibles just in time for Holy Week. These Bibles are far more expensive than other Bibles, including leather-bound ones. They follow Trump’s sneaker products and cologne, which came after his NFT trading cards, which also included pieces of his suit that he wore when getting his mugshot taken.
President Biden approached fundraising in a very different way from Trump this week with a large event in New York City that included former Presidents Obama and Clinton along with star-studded celebrity appearances. This event raised over $25 million for Biden in just one night, which was more than the Trump campaign raised in all of February.
Biden and Democrats continue to dominate fundraising. The Biden campaign and associate committees raised $53 million in February and had $155 million in cash on hand before this week’s fundraiser. Trump’s campaign and associate committees raised only $20 million in February and had $42 million cash on hand at the end of last month. Due to Trump's legal bills, the Trump campaign and PACs have also been spending more than they’ve brought in for months.
The House of Representatives is on its 4th recess in five months this week, but that didn’t stop Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene from spending her time making the case to vacate Speaker Johnson due to the budget that recently passed to avoid a government shutdown.
The budget was originally due last October, but disagreements between Republicans and Democrats dragged the process on through numerous continuing resolutions. Greene had written up the articles to vacate the Speakership before the recess but has yet to bring the motion forward for a vote. Whether she will trigger the vote after the recess or is merely using the threat as leverage against Johnson remains to be seen.
This week saw a tragic bridge collapse in Maryland after a massive cargo ship lost power and collided with one of the Francis Scott Key bridge supports, which brought down a major span of the bridge nearly instantly. The bridge’s captain had used his cellphone to send out a mayday as soon as power was lost, which allowed the bridge to be closed. Even still, six construction workers who were actively working on the bridge at the time are presumed dead, and two bodies have been recovered so far.
Due to the particular relevant timing, this week's article includes a discussion that happened today and would typically be included in next week’s recap.
President Biden announced recognition of the International Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31st. While Biden has done this every year of his Presidency, this year, it caused uproar among conservatives because it falls on the same day as Easter. Easter falls on a different day each year due to being based on the lunar calendar.
Numerous conservative politicians, including members of Congress, along with multiple conservative outlets such as Fox News and Newsmax, condemned this announcement as either Biden attempting to erase Easter or committing a sacrilegious act. Neither is true, and the International Transgender Day of Visibility is nothing new.
Fox News and other outlets also attempted to condemn the White House for preventing any religious iconography from being involved with easter egg painting at the celebration. However, this is extremely misleading because Trump did the same thing during his presidency as other presidents for 45 years.
All of this was no more than fake culture war outrage designed to ignite the Republican base and distract from real issues facing the nation.
